Vocabulary - Politics/Language/Argument Flashcards
Enclave - a distinct territorial, cultural, or social unit enclosed within or as if within foreign territory
Buyer’s remorse (or buyer’s regret) - the sense of regret after having made a purchase.
Champagne socialist - a person who espouses socialist ideals while enjoying a wealthy and luxurious lifestyle.
Rapacious - aggressively greedy (rapacious landlords)
Bipartisan - of or involving the agreement or cooperation of two political parties that usually oppose each other’s policies.
Implosion - a sudden failure or collapse of an organisation or system.
Austerity - difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce public expenditure. (the country was subjected to acute economic austerity)
Amplify - intensify, magnify, swell, heighten
Intifada - the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1993, and the second began in 2000.
Defenestrate - remove or dismiss (someone) from a position of power or authority.
Polemic - a strong verbal or written attack on someone or something; diatribe, invective
Treacherous - guilty of or involving betrayal or deception; traitorous, disloyal
Undermine - lessen the effectiveness, power, or ability of, especially gradually or insidiously; subvert, sabotage, weaken
Zombie nouns = optimisation, globalisation
Ornamental talk = Non-functional talk (decorative / cosmetic)
Piffle - nonsense, claptrap
Moonshine - foolish talk or ideas
Refutation - the action of proving a statement or theory to be wrong or false
Inflame - provoke or intensify (strong feelings, especially anger) in someone; incite, arouse, foment, agitate
Grandiose - extravagantly or pretentiously imposing in appearance or style.
Blunder - make a stupid or careless mistake; act or speak clumsily; flounder, falter
Proviso - a condition or qualification attached to an agreement or statement; condition, provision, stipulation
Pander - gratify or indulge, “newspapers are pandering to people’s baser instincts”
Stigmatise - describe or regard as worthy of disgrace or great disapproval.
Self-negating - to nullify or cause to be ineffective
Ardent - very enthusiastic or passionate
Obfuscate - make obscure, unclear, or unintelligible, blur, muddle
Kleptocracy - a government with corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) that use their power to exploit the people and natural resources of their own territory in order to extend their personal wealth and political power. Typically this system involves embezzlement of funds at the expense of the wider population.
Forsake - renounce or give up (something valued or pleasant); relinquish, forgo
Evocative - bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind; reminiscent, suggestive, redolent; resonant with; expressive, vivid, graphic, powerful, haunting, moving, poignant
Reverberate - have continuing and serious effects.
Resonate - evoke images, memories, and emotions.
Preordained - decide or determine (an outcome or course of action) beforehand; predestined, fated
Vindicate - 1/ clear (someone) of blame or suspicion;
acquit, clear, absolve, declare innocent, exonerate, exculpate,
2/ show or prove to be right, reasonable, or justified.
substantiate, establish, demonstrate, ratify, authenticate, verify, confirm, corroborate.
Downtrodden - oppressed or treated badly by people in power; subjugated, persecuted, subdued, repressed, tyrannized, ground down, crushed, enslaved, burdened, weighed down, exploited, disadvantaged, underprivileged,
Intimate - imply or hint
Inhumanity - extremely cruel and brutal behaviour; cruelty, harshness, brutality, callousness, sadism, severity, savagery, viciousness, barbarity, barbarism
Abstraction - something which exists only as an idea; concept, idea, notion, thought, generality, generalization, theory, theorem, formula, hypothesis, speculation, conjecture, supposition, presumption
Elicit (a response) - evoke or draw out (a reaction, answer, or fact) from someone.
Orthodoxy - the quality of conforming to orthodox theories, doctrines, or practices; conventionality, conventionalism, conformism, conservatism, traditionalism, conformity, properness, propriety, correctness
Marshall (Facts) - assemble and arrange (a group of people, especially troops) in order; arrange, deploy
Inculcate - instil (an idea, attitude, or habit) by persistent instruction; implant, imprint
Aphorism - a pithy observation which contains a general truth
Exile - the state of being barred from one’s native country, typically for political or punitive reasons; banishment, expulsion
Discontent - dissatisfaction with one’s circumstances; lack of contentment; dissatisfaction, disaffection, discontentment, discontentedness, disgruntlement,
Inextricably - in a way that is impossible to disentangle or separate.
Redemptive - acting to save someone from error or evil. In Christianity, a redemptive act or quality is something which leads to freedom from the consequences of sin and evil.
Transgression - an act that goes against a law, rule, or code of conduct; an offence; sin, wrongdoing, misdemeanour, felony, misdeed, lawbreaking, vice, evil-doing, indiscretion,
Exonerate - (of an official body) absolve (someone) from blame for a fault or wrongdoing; absolve, clear, acquit,
Excoriating - criticise someone severely
Turbocharge - make more powerful, fast, or exciting.
Sectarian - rigidly following the doctrines of a sect or other group.
Unadorned - not adorned; plain, unembellished, unornamented, undecorated, unelaborate, unvarnished, unfurnished, unpatterned, uncluttered, unostentatious, unfussy, no-nonsense, restrained
Consilience - agreement between the approaches to a topic of different academic subjects, especially science and the humanities.
Discourse - written or spoken communication or debate; discussion, conversation, talk, dialogue, communication, conference, debate
Rhetoric - 1/ The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques; oratory, eloquence
2/ Language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect, but which is often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content; bombast, loftiness, turgidity, pomposity, boastfulness, hyperbole, extravagant language, verbosity
Immutable - unchangeable, fixed, set, rigid, inflexible, unyielding, unbending, permanent, entrenched, established, well-established, unshakeable, irremovable, indelible, ineradicable
Egregious - outstandingly bad, shocking “an egregious tirade”
Abnegation - the action of renouncing or rejecting something; renunciation, rejection, refusal, abandonment
Self-effacing - not claiming attention for oneself; retiring and modest. The act of making oneself, one’s actions, etc, inconspicuous, esp because of humility or timidity.
Substantive - having a firm basis in reality and so important, meaningful, or considerable.
philanthropic - seeking to promote the welfare of others; generous and benevolent.
misanthropic - having or showing a dislike of other people; unsociable, reclusive
Asymmetry - lack of equality or equivalence between parts or aspects of something; lack of symmetry.
Stultify - cause to lose enthusiasm and initiative, especially as a result of a tedious or restrictive routine.
“the stultifying conformity of provincial life”
hamper, impede, obstruct, thwart, frustrate, foil, suppress, smother
Dehumanise - to remove from a person the special human qualities of independent thought, feeling for other people
“It’s a totalitarian regime that reduces and dehumanizes its population.”
Tautology - the saying of the same thing twice over in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style (e.g. they arrived one after the other in succession).
repetition,
Zetigeist - the spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time.
Hospitable - friendly and welcoming to visitors or guests.
“two friendly, hospitable brothers run the hotel”
welcoming, friendly, congenial, genial, sociable, convivial,
Usurped - (YOUsurped) - take the place of (someone in a position of power) illegally; supplant.
“the Hanoverian dynasty had usurped the Stuarts”
oust, overthrow, remove, topple,
Brinkmanship - the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, especially in politics.
Marginalise - treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral.
Myriad - countless or extremely great in number; innumerable, countless, infinite, numberless, unlimited, untold,
Fervour (biblical) - intense and passionate feeling.
“he talked with all the fervour of a new convert”; passion, ardour, intensity, zeal, vehemence
Vehemence - great forcefulness or intensity of feeling or expression. “the vehemence of his reaction”
passion, force, forcefulness, ardour, fervour, spirit
Precipitous - dangerously high or steep; steep, sheer, high, perpendicular, abrupt, sharp, dizzy, vertiginous, vertical, bluff; Mais
Multiplicity (of views) - a large number or variety; abundance, scores, mass, host, array
Diametrically opposed
Obnoxious - Very annoying or objectionable; offensive or odious; extremely unpleasant
Invidious - 1/ (of an action or situation) likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others; unpleasant, awkward, difficult;
2/ (of a comparison or distinction) unfairly discriminating; unjust; unfair, unjust, prejudicial, discriminatory, iniquitous, weighted, one-sided
Socialise losses and privatise gains
Oxymoron - a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
Open secret / Virtual reality / Random order / Jumbo shrimp
Epitome - a person or thing that is a perfect example of a particular quality or type.
“she looked the epitome of elegance and good taste”; personification, embodiment
Solemn - 1/ formal and dignified; ceremonious, ceremonial, stately, courtly, majestic, imposing, impressive, awe-inspiring, portentous, splendid, magnificent, grand, important, august, formal
2/ characterized by deep sincerity.
“he swore a solemn oath to keep faith”; sincere, earnest
Evanescence - soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing.
“the evanescent Arctic summer”; vanishing, fading, evaporating, melting away, disappearing, diminishing, dwindling, shrinking
Ineffable - too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words.
“the ineffable mysteries of the soul”
inexpressible, indescribable, beyond words, beyond description
Onus - something that is one’s duty or responsibility; burden, liability, obligation, duty
